Freja Holm finally ended Arsenal and Chelsea’s domination of England’s WSL as she led Manchester City to their first title in 29 years. Now 20 years into her Trailblazer challenge to win the top 11 women’s football leagues, Holm had ticked off seven.
The remaining four league titles may be difficult to achieve, given it’s impossible to get a job in Australia and nearly as tough in Denmark. Realistically, Leipzig and Bayern are the only likely jobs to take in Germany, while Sweden has a bit more potential for an unfancied challenger. However, no interesting jobs appeared over the summer, so Holm was forced to play a waiting game. And it took until mid-December for something to pop up, which took Holm back home for the first time in 18 years.
Who Are Malmö FF?
Malmö Fotbollförening is a women’s football team based in Malmö, the third largest city in Sweden located in the very south of the country. The club was first founded in September 1970 under the name Malmö FF Dam and won the Swedish title in 1986 and then won Damallsvenskan, which was formed in 1988, three times in four years between 1991 and 1994. The club was rebranded in 2007, which resulted in it withdrawing from Malmö FF and becoming the club that’s now known as FC Rosengård.
In November 2019, Malmö FF voted to reintroduce a women’s section, which saw the current club reborn in Division 4, the lowest level of women’s football in Sweden. And it quickly rose through the leagues to reach Damallsvenskan. During this save, Malmö FF won the Swedish title in 2031, 2036 and in the season just gone (2045), despite being far from favourites. But the role became available as manager Arne Serritslev left to join German side SV Meppen.
Malmö play at the 28,125-capacity Malmö New Stadium, built in 2019, which is supported by good training and youth facilities, good academy coaching and exceptional youth recruitment. It has £1.3m in the bank, which, say it quietly, seems to have increased in recent months, a £1.6m transfer budget and £4.8k available of a £22.4k weekly wage budget.
Holm had a bit of a clearout, selling 20 players for £600k. The best player remaining at Malmö FF is American goalkeeper Isabelle Grigg, along with centre backs Despoina Chrysanthakopoulou and Linnéa Ekerberg, winger Ella Forssell, New Zealand right back Rebecca Ludlam, a familiar face in former Leipzig midfielder Lily Bettinelli and attacker Alma Lissel. Holm also had plenty of promising youngsters to work with, led by right back Jennie Hallengren, strikers Minela Fakovic and Leah Forssell and midfielder Alice Rubensson.
Holm snapped up Chilean international midfielder Barbara Uribe, who came in as the second-best player at the club, on a free from Colo-Colo, signed left back Emiliana for £40k from Corinthians and attacker Senay Cin for £90k from Brighton.
Holm took a fairly basic 4-3-3 approach, with Emiliana pushing on in her favoured advanced wingback role on the left. Lissel will lead the line with E Forssel and Cin providing the wide threat.
Holm Returns to Sweden
The bookies really didn’t rate Holm’s transfer business, predicting Malmö to finish 6th with odds of 20/1 to defend their title. Häcken are 10/11 favourites, followed by Växjö (7/2), Hammarby (11/1), Linnköping (13/1) and Vittsjö (15/1), with Holm’s former club Alingsås predicted 7th at 25/1 and her hometown club Umeå 8th at 50/1.
Holm returned to Sweden with a trip to Vittsjö and Bettinelli’s delicious 25-yard strike earned a point. Three days later, Malmö welcomed favourites Häcken to town and put on a true champions’ performance with a 4-0 domination led by Lissel’s delicious chip, Uribe’s first goal for the club and a late E Forssell strike finishing a great team move. However, they lost 2-1 at Norrköping before Holm took on her former club Alingsås for the first time since leaving in 2028, and they struggled, but Cin rescued a late equaliser. A third 1-1 in four games at Kristianstad had Holm wondering if this was a good or bad start.
She dropped a few underperformers and was rewarded as youngsters Aysel Kurga and L Forssell scored in a 3-0 win over early leaders Hammarby. A week later, L Forssell scored again in a 3-1 victory at Värnamo, which shot Malmö up to 4th in the table. But they further improved their position as Cin’s volley after an hour was the only goal at home to leaders Linnköping.
L Forssell was on the scoresheet again before Emiliana scored the winner at Jitex. Uribe and E Forssell strikes downed Holm’s hometown club Umeå and an easy 3-0 win at struggling Gamla Upsala took Malmö top of Damallsvenskan for the first time this season at the halfway mark of the campaign. They stayed there going into the long mid-season break as Chrysantokopoulou’s header was the difference in a tight game at home to Växjö.
Champions League Struggles
Malmö’s bid to retain the Swedish title was disrupted by entering the Champions League league phase, in which they got a really tough draw, including games against two of Holm’s former clubs. They began with a home game against Arsenal, for which the squad was exhausted, so Holm rotated and they got destroyed 8-0. They visited OLL and lost 2-0, but responded well with Kurga inspiring a 4-1 win at home to Celtic and Emiliana’s late goal nicking an impressive 1-0 win at home to Fiorentina. They lost 4-1 at Bayern and 3-0 at Bayern to exit in 14th place.
More Sales Ahead of Swedish Title Race
Holm sold nine more backup players in July for an additional £300k. Malmö resumed the league campaign with a dull 0-0 at home to Örebro before a poor performance in a 3-1 defeat at Häcken. But they bounced back in style at home to Vittsjö as Cin scored a delicious opener and they raced into a 4-0 first-half lead before winning 5-2. They built on that with Uribe’s brace leading a 4-0 win at home to Norrköping, before Holm’s first return to Alingsås saw them come out on top in a 3-2 thriller decided by Cin laying on goals for L Forssell and Kurga.
That win sent Malmö 4 points clear at the top of Damallsvenskan, but out of nowhere, they suffered a huge drop in form. They lost 1-0 at home to 12th-place Värnamo, then somehow threw away a dominant lead to lose 2-1 at Linnköping, who only had one shot on target. Despite that, Häcken were also struggling, which left Malmö 6 points clear of them and three more teams with five games remaining.
The other title contenders all played while Malmö were on European duty, and Häcken’s struggles continued with a 0-0 at home to 10-player Norrköping, Växjö won 3-2 at Hammarby, Vittsjö lost 2-1 at Alingsås and Linnköping drew 2-2 with Umeå.
Gameweek 22 – Umeå (9th, away): Holm headed home to Umeå and got a familiar feeling as they bossed the game, but Kurga and Uribe hit the bar inside 18 minutes. They finally got a break as Fakovic was taken out and Bettinelli calmly converted the penalty. Umeå equalised with pretty much their first attack, but straight down the other end, Kurga’s long-range effort deflected in and Hanna Ohlander killed the game off with her first senior goal.
Häcken got a late winner to win 2-1 at Kristianstad, Linnköping won 1-0 at Växjö and Vittsjö drew 1-1 at home to Hammarby. That took Malmö 5 points clear with a game in hand and matches at home to the bottom two up next.
Gameweek 23 – Jitex (13th, home): Malmö strengthened their grip on the title in their game in hand as Uribe and both Forssells earned an easy 3-0 win over Jitex. That took them 8 points clear with three games remaining.
Gameweek 24 – Gamla Upsala (14th, home): Malmö got a flyer at home to the strugglers as Cin’s cross picked out L Forssell to tap in from close range. The lead was doubled 8 minutes later as E Forssell teed up her namesake from even closer range and Cin made it three inside 20 minutes, picking up the ball from a corner and beating the keeper at her near post. L Forssell completed her first career hat trick, heading home E Forssell’s cross just before halftime, and added a club record fourth after the break. That sealed the title in style, despite the lack of trophy lift (again).
Malmö defended their Damallsvenskan title to win the Swedish league for the 9th time!
Malmö went on to win the league by 7 points, finishing on 55 points after 17 wins, 4 draws and 5 defeats, scoring a league-high 56 and conceding a league-low 22. L Forssell was the third top scorer with 12 goals with Kurga 5th on 9 goals, and Cin topped the assists chart with 11 followed by E Forssell on 9.
Another Title Ticked Off
Holm led a strong young Malmö squad to more Damallsvenskan success, in doing so making the Swedish title the 8th of 11 to be ticked off her Trailblazer list. Kurga, who was on loan from Fleury after joining them the previous summer, led the way with 14 goals and 7 assists, along with L Forssell (13 goals and 2 assists), E Forssell (12 goals and 9 assists), Cin (8 goals and 15 assists), Uribe (7 goals and 6 assists) and Bettinelli (5 goals and 6 assists).
Holm was a little sad to be leaving Malmö given the amount of exciting young talents coming through the club. However, this latest success meant she now only had three leagues to win to complete the Trailblazer challenge – although two of those leagues seem impossible. Holm departs Malmö after 37 games, of which she won 23 (62% win ratio), drew 4 and lost 10, scoring 77 and conceding 47.
Where would Holm end up next? Could she find a job in Germany? And would it be possible to find a job in Australia or Denmark? Join us on Friday to find out!
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